Egypt Tourism Statistics Updated November 2026

Human Written & Fact Checked · Updated

147 Egypt Tourism Statistics for 2026

Egypt received about 19 million international tourists in 2025, the most on record, and travel receipts reached US$18.4 billion in the fiscal year to June 2026. Tourism now makes up a larger share of the economy than at any time in the past decade.

This page gathers the official figures on Egypt tourism in one place: arrivals by calendar and fiscal year, source markets, spending and the value to the economy, the monuments and museums, the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Red Sea resorts, airports, hotels and Nile cruises, the climate and the busiest months, and the 2026 trend and targets. Every number links to the body that published it, with the date.

Two points shape every figure. Egypt's government uses a fiscal year that runs from July to June, so revenue and some arrivals figures are labelled FY and are never mixed with calendar years. Recent annual arrivals come from rounded ministry statements, because the detailed official arrivals table has not been updated since early 2019.

Headline figures

  • Egypt received about 19 million international tourists in 2025, a record and 21% more than in 2024, the tourism ministry said. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jan 2026)
  • Travel receipts reached a record US$18.4 billion in FY2025/26 (July 2025 to June 2026), up 10.3% on the year before. (Central Bank of Egypt (balance of payments), Oct 2026)
  • Tourism made up 3.7% of Egypt's GDP in FY2024/25, up from 2.4% in FY2021/22 and the highest share in a decade. (Cabinet IDSC, May 2026)
  • The government counted 17.4 million tourists in FY2024/25 (July 2024 to June 2025), up from 15 million in FY2023/24. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • Europeans made up about 58% of Egypt's tourist arrivals in 2023, and visitors from the Middle East 22.3%. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • Arrivals reached 6.1 million in January to April 2026, 7% more than in the same months of 2025. (State Information Service, May 2026)
  • The Grand Egyptian Museum received about 5.2 million visitors from its opening in November 2025 to early November 2026, the ministry said. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Nov 2026)
  • Archaeological sites in Luxor governorate recorded 5.921 million visits in 2024, the most of any governorate. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Cairo International Airport handled 31,294,024 passengers in 2025, up 8.0% on 2024. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Jan 2026)
  • Hurghada was Egypt's second-busiest airport in 2024, with 9,633,187 passengers, up 8.6%. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Egypt had 222,716 hotel rooms at the end of March 2024, counting fixed and floating hotels, the latest exact national count. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Apr 2024)
  • Egypt has 237 licensed Nile cruise ships, of which 180 are operating and the rest are being renovated, the ministry said in March 2026. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Mar 2026)
  • Luxor averages a daily high of 41.4°C in July, against 23.0°C in January, on 1981-2010 averages. (WMO / Egyptian Meteorological Authority, 1981-2010)
  • The government estimated average tourist spending at US$100 a night in 2025, up from US$85 the year before. (State Information Service, Sep 2025)

How many tourists visit Egypt each year?

Arrivals have set a new record in each of the past three years, after deep falls following 2011, 2015 and the pandemic. The government now publishes annual totals as rounded figures in ministry statements, not as a detailed table.

14.7m 2010 8.3m 2017 11.3m 2018 13.1m 2019
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Calendar-year tourist arrivals in 2010, the peak before the 2011 uprising, and from 2017 to 2019, as reported from central bank statistics.
PeriodValue
201014.7m
20178.3m
201811.3m
201913.1m
Calendar-year tourist arrivals in 2010, the peak before the 2011 uprising, and from 2017 to 2019, as reported from central bank statistics. (State Information Service, Mar 2020)
  • Egypt received 15.8 million tourists in 2024, 6% more than in 2023 and above the pre-pandemic level. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, May 2025)
  • Arrivals in the first quarter of 2025 were 25% higher than a year earlier. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, May 2025)
  • In 2023 Egypt received 14.9 million tourists, beating the previous record of 14.7 million set in 2010. (State Information Service, Jan 2024)
  • Arrivals reached 11.7 million in 2022, up 46.2% from 8 million in 2021. (State Information Service, Aug 2023)
  • Before the pandemic, Egypt received 13.1 million tourists in 2019, up from 11.3 million in 2018 and 8.3 million in 2017. (State Information Service, Mar 2020)
  • In 2025, 8.7 million tourists arrived in the first half of the year, 12.8 million by the end of August and around 15 million by late September, the minister said. (State Information Service, Oct 2025)

These are calendar-year counts of international tourist arrivals, rounded in government statements. Releases round the 2024 total slightly differently; we use the ministry's figure. Cumulative 2025 figures are the minister's statements during the year. Fiscal-year figures, which run from July to June, are in the next section and are never mixed with these.

How many tourists and tourist nights does Egypt count by fiscal year?

Egypt's plans and national accounts use a fiscal year from July to June, and on that basis tourist nights are at a record level. Visitors stay about ten nights on average.

12.29m FY2008/09 13.76m FY2009/10 11.93m FY2010/11 10.95m FY2011/12 12.21m FY2012/13 7.97m FY2013/14 10.24m FY2014/15 6.87m FY2015/16 6.62m FY2016/17
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International tourist arrivals by fiscal year (July to June), FY2008/09 to FY2016/17, the last full years in the older official series.
PeriodValue
FY2008/0912.29m
FY2009/1013.76m
FY2010/1111.93m
FY2011/1210.95m
FY2012/1312.21m
FY2013/147.97m
FY2014/1510.24m
FY2015/166.87m
FY2016/176.62m
International tourist arrivals by fiscal year (July to June), FY2008/09 to FY2016/17, the last full years in the older official series. (CAPMAS and Ministry of Tourism (CBE series), 2026)

Fiscal years run from July to June. The older series, compiled by CAPMAS and the tourism ministry and published by the central bank, stops in early 2019. Recent fiscal-year figures come from the planning ministry and the Cabinet's IDSC, and the method may differ, so the record in nights should be read with care. The 10.3 nights and the 64% fall are our calculations.

Where do Egypt's tourists come from?

Europe sends most of Egypt's visitors, and Russia and Germany are the two largest single markets. The European share is well below its level of a decade ago.

  • Europe 58%
  • Middle East 22.3%
  • North America 4%
  • Other regions 15.7%
Tourist arrivals in 2023 by region of origin, as rounded shares. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • Russia is now the largest source market and Germany the second, according to the government in July 2026. (State Information Service, Jul 2026)
  • In 2024 the top three source countries were Germany, Russia and Saudi Arabia. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • Visitors from North America made up about 4% of arrivals in 2023, and other regions 15.7%. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • Germany was the largest source among EU countries, with 1.6 million tourists in 2023. (State Information Service, Mar 2024)
  • Arrivals from Turkey rose 43% in 2025, and the minister said Egypt was Turkish tourists' top destination that year. (State Information Service, Feb 2026)
  • Arrivals from France grew 22% in January to June 2026 compared with the same months of 2025. (State Information Service, Jul 2026)
  • Arrivals from the United States rose 2% in the first half of 2026, half the rate for all markets. (State Information Service, Aug 2026)
  • The government aims to double UK arrivals to 2 million a year within five years. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Nov 2026)
  • Europeans were 73% of arrivals in FY2012/13 but 51% in FY2016/17, when the Middle East accounted for 1.78 million arrivals, about 27%. (CAPMAS and Ministry of Tourism (CBE series), 2026)

The 2023 regional split is the planning ministry's, with rounded shares. No official arrivals count by country has been published for 2024 or 2025, only rankings and growth rates, and earlier statements put Germany first. The fiscal-year shares are our calculations from the central bank series, which uses CAPMAS regions.

How much do tourists spend in Egypt?

Tourism is Egypt's largest source of services income, worth far more than the Suez Canal. Receipts have risen in every fiscal year since the pandemic, and July to September is now the strongest quarter.

$3.52bn Apr-Jun 24 $4.82bn Jul-Sep 24 $3.91bn Oct-Dec 24 $3.81bn Jan-Mar 25 $4.19bn Apr-Jun 25 $5.48bn Jul-Sep 25 $4.76bn Oct-Dec 25 $4.16bn Jan-Mar 26
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Quarterly travel receipts in US$ billions, April 2024 to March 2026: the last quarter of FY2023/24, all of FY2024/25 and the first three quarters of FY2025/26. Provisional.
PeriodValue
Apr-Jun 24$3.52bn
Jul-Sep 24$4.82bn
Oct-Dec 24$3.91bn
Jan-Mar 25$3.81bn
Apr-Jun 25$4.19bn
Jul-Sep 25$5.48bn
Oct-Dec 25$4.76bn
Jan-Mar 26$4.16bn
Quarterly travel receipts in US$ billions, April 2024 to March 2026: the last quarter of FY2023/24, all of FY2024/25 and the first three quarters of FY2025/26. Provisional. (Central Bank of Egypt (monthly bulletin), Jul 2026)

Receipts are the balance-of-payments travel line: spending in Egypt by non-residents, including business travellers and students, on a fiscal-year basis (July to June). Both recent years are provisional. The 52% share, the surplus, the nine-month total, the 9.4% and the per-tourist and per-night figures are our calculations; the per-tourist figures use the planning ministry's tourist and night counts. Calendar-year revenue figures in the press use a different basis and are not mixed with these.

What is tourism worth to Egypt's economy?

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing parts of Egypt's economy, and almost all of it is private business. These figures count the direct output of the tourism activity in the national accounts, so they are much smaller than total-impact estimates.

2.4% FY2021/22 3.1% FY2022/23 3.4% FY2023/24 3.7% FY2024/25
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Tourism's direct share of Egypt's GDP by fiscal year, FY2021/22 to FY2024/25.
PeriodValue
FY2021/222.4%
FY2022/233.1%
FY2023/243.4%
FY2024/253.7%
Tourism's direct share of Egypt's GDP by fiscal year, FY2021/22 to FY2024/25. (Cabinet IDSC, May 2026)

GDP figures are for the tourism activity in Egypt's national accounts at factor cost, compiled by the planning ministry and published in the central bank's bulletin; they are preliminary. Nominal growth is high because of inflation, so the real (constant-price) figures are the better guide. The 98% and 99% shares and the four-times ratio are our calculations. The jobs figure is a ministerial rule of thumb, not a count.

How have crises affected tourism in Egypt?

Egyptian tourism has fallen sharply several times since 2010 and recovered each time. The worst years for revenue came after the 2015 Sinai plane crash and during the pandemic.

$11.59bn FY2009/10 $10.59bn FY2010/11 $9.42bn FY2011/12 $9.75bn FY2012/13 $5.07bn FY2013/14 $7.37bn FY2014/15 $3.77bn FY2015/16 $4.38bn FY2016/17 $9.80bn FY2017/18 $12.57bn FY2018/19 $9.86bn FY2019/20 $4.86bn FY2020/21 $10.75bn FY2021/22 $13.63bn FY2022/23 $14.38bn FY2023/24
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Travel receipts by fiscal year (July to June), FY2009/10 to FY2023/24, in US$ billions. The falls follow 2011, the 2015 plane crash and the pandemic.
PeriodValue
FY2009/10$11.59bn
FY2010/11$10.59bn
FY2011/12$9.42bn
FY2012/13$9.75bn
FY2013/14$5.07bn
FY2014/15$7.37bn
FY2015/16$3.77bn
FY2016/17$4.38bn
FY2017/18$9.80bn
FY2018/19$12.57bn
FY2019/20$9.86bn
FY2020/21$4.86bn
FY2021/22$10.75bn
FY2022/23$13.63bn
FY2023/24$14.38bn
Travel receipts by fiscal year (July to June), FY2009/10 to FY2023/24, in US$ billions. The falls follow 2011, the 2015 plane crash and the pandemic. (Central Bank of Egypt (balance of payments series), 2026)

Revenue figures are fiscal years (July to June) from one central bank balance-of-payments series, so years are comparable; FY2023/24 is provisional. The causes named are context, not part of the data. The 61% fall is our calculation. The 2019 calendar-year figure is on a different basis from the fiscal-year series.

How many people visit Egypt's monuments and museums?

Luxor and Giza draw the most visitors to Egypt's ancient sites, and together they took more than two thirds of site visits in 2024. Two official counts exist, from the statistics agency and from the ministry, and they use different bases.

  1. 1 Luxor 5.92m
  2. 2 Giza 5.22m
  3. 3 Aswan 2.61m
  4. 4 Cairo 1.40m
  5. 5 Alexandria 0.83m
Visits to archaeological sites by governorate in 2024, the five busiest, in millions. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Ticketed visits to Islamic, Coptic and Pharaonic sites totalled 16.506 million in 2024 at 125 sites, up from 10.285 million in 2023. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Giza governorate, home to the pyramids, recorded 5.219 million visits at 15 sites; Aswan recorded 2.606 million and Cairo 1.403 million. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • State museums recorded 2.599 million visits in 2024 across 78 museums. Alexandria's took 848,000, Cairo's 826,000 and Luxor's 475,000. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Sound and light shows drew 217,886 spectators in FY2024/25: 60,552 at Karnak, 53,152 at the Giza pyramids and 46,946 in Alexandria. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Arabic-language shows drew 98,456 of those spectators and English-language shows 75,555. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • The ministry put visits to museums and archaeological sites at 18.5 million in 2025. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jun 2026)
  • Sites and museums open to the public received about 173 million visits from July 2014 to June 2026, the minister said. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Oct 2026)
  • Over the same 12 years, about 240 conservation and restoration projects were carried out and about 30,000 artefacts were returned to Egypt. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Oct 2026)
  • Over the first three days of Eid al-Adha in June 2024, the Giza pyramids area received 28,500 visitors, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir about 10,000 and the Citadel about 3,700. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jun 2024)

CAPMAS counts ticketed visits by Egyptians and foreigners at sites, by governorate. The ministry's 2025 total is on its own basis, so the two are not compared here. The rise from 2023 to 2024 in the CAPMAS sites table, and a fall in its museums table, may partly reflect changes in counting. Sound and light figures are fiscal years (July to June); we use the published counts, not the table's percentages. The two-thirds share is our calculation.

How many people visit the Grand Egyptian Museum?

The Grand Egyptian Museum, near the Giza pyramids, opened to the public on 4 November 2025. Crowds in the first weeks were large enough that daily numbers are now managed with timed-entry slots.

Visitor figures are ministry statements and are rounded. The museum authority's chief executive later gave a slightly higher figure for the first public day. The first-year total runs from the official opening in November 2025 to early November 2026. The ticket rise is the increase only; the release does not give the full price.

Which resorts and regions draw the most visitors?

The Red Sea resorts of Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh and Marsa Alam handle far more air passengers than the Nile Valley, and their airports grew fastest in 2024. Air traffic to Luxor and Aswan fell that year, and the Mediterranean coast around El Alamein is growing from a small base.

  1. 1 Hurghada 9.63m
  2. 2 Sharm el-Sheikh 6.83m
  3. 3 Marsa Alam 2.29m
  4. 4 Luxor 1.33m
  5. 5 Sphinx 1.05m
  6. 6 Aswan 0.80m
Passengers at Egypt's busiest airports outside Cairo International in 2024, in millions, arriving and departing. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Sharm el-Sheikh airport handled 6,834,622 passengers in 2024, up 14.1%, and Marsa Alam 2,285,754, up 18.1%. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Luxor airport passengers fell 3.9% to 1,334,835 in 2024, Aswan fell 23.3% to 798,008 and Abu Simbel fell 44.5% to 84,554. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Hurghada airport can handle 13 million passengers a year. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aug 2024)
  • Hurghada's busiest day of 2025 up to late October was 25 October, with 53,169 passengers on 335 flights, 21.2% more than on the same day of 2024. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Oct 2025)
  • Nature reserves in South Sinai received 1.662 million visitors in 2024, down from 2.905 million in 2023, while Red Sea governorate reserves received 632,000, up from 256,000. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Egypt's nature reserves received 3.25 million visitors in total in 2024. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • El Alamein airport, on the Mediterranean coast, handled 169,541 passengers in 2025, and the aviation ministry expects about 266,593 in 2026. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Jun 2026)
  • Arrivals through Marsa Matrouh airport rose 26% in summer 2026 compared with summer 2025. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Aug 2026)
  • The ministry reports worldwide demand to watch the total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027 from Luxor, and has set up a joint team with the private sector to secure flights and hotel rooms. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jul 2026)

Airport figures count arriving and departing passengers of all nationalities, not tourists. The El Alamein figure for 2026 is an estimate made in June. Reserve counts are by governorate and include Egyptian visitors.

How do visitors get to Egypt, and do they need a visa?

Almost all tourists fly in, and Cairo is by far the busiest airport. Visitors from many countries can get a visa online or on arrival.

33.94m 2012 31.90m 2013 34.51m 2014 34.81m 2015 30.50m 2017 35.59m 2018 39.70m 2019 13.50m 2020 23.77m 2021
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Passengers through all Egyptian airports, 2012 to 2021, in millions. The source has no figure for 2016.
PeriodValue
201233.94m
201331.90m
201434.51m
201534.81m
201730.50m
201835.59m
201939.70m
202013.50m
202123.77m
Passengers through all Egyptian airports, 2012 to 2021, in millions. The source has no figure for 2016. (CAPMAS (air transport bulletin), 2021)
  • More than 95% of Egypt's inbound tourists arrive by air. (State Information Service, Dec 2025)
  • Egyptian airports handled 54,488,955 passengers in 2024, up 9.5%, and 426,046 aircraft movements. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Cairo airport handled 226,477 flights in 2025, up 5.8%. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Jan 2026)
  • The other main airports, run by the Egyptian Airports Company, handled about 28 million passengers in 2025, up 22.3% from 22.9 million, on about 209,800 flights. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dec 2025)
  • Cairo's busiest day of 2025 was 25 December, with about 103,000 passengers on 696 flights. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Dec 2025)
  • In January 2026 Cairo handled more than 105,000 passengers and 714 flights in 24 hours. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Jan 2026)
  • In 2019, before the pandemic, Egyptian airports handled 39,695,634 passengers. Traffic fell to 13,495,141 in 2020 and recovered to 23,768,098 in 2021. (CAPMAS (air transport bulletin), 2021)
  • In 2019 Cairo handled 19,603,741 passengers, Hurghada 7,464,603 and Sharm el-Sheikh 5,892,351. (CAPMAS (air transport bulletin), 2021)
  • International arrivals at Egyptian airports were 17,148,493 passengers in 2019. (CAPMAS (air transport bulletin), 2021)
  • In winter 2025/26 flights rose 25%, passengers 24% and seats 23% on the previous winter, the tourism promotion authority reported. (State Information Service, Jan 2026)
  • Since March 2022, nationals of more than 180 countries can get a visa on arrival if they hold a valid, previously used visa for the US, UK, Schengen area, Japan, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. (State Information Service, Jan 2023)
  • At the same time the number of nationalities eligible for an e-visa or a visa on arrival rose to 78. (State Information Service, Jan 2023)
  • A digital visa-on-arrival system began trial operation at Cairo International Airport on 1 August 2026. (State Information Service, Aug 2026)

Airport figures count arriving and departing passengers, including Egyptians and domestic and transit travellers, so they are not tourist counts. The CAPMAS online series ends in 2021; the 2024 total comes from its yearbook, which also counts military and private flights, so the two may not be fully comparable. Cairo's 2024 total differs between releases, so only its 2025 figure is given. The Egyptian Airports Company figure was published in late December and may be a near-full-year estimate.

How do visitors travel around Egypt, and how safe are the roads?

Nile cruises, tour buses and Red Sea ferries carry visitors between the main sites and resorts. Road deaths have fallen each year since 2022.

  1. 1 Nuweiba 248,465
  2. 2 Safaga 197,986
  3. 3 Alexandria 35,229
  4. 4 West Port Said 18,240
  5. 5 Hurghada 9,439
  6. 6 Sharm el-Sheikh 8,954
Passengers at Egypt's sea ports in 2024, mostly ferry traffic to Jordan and Saudi Arabia from Nuweiba and Safaga. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Egypt had 15,752 floating-hotel rooms on Nile cruise ships in February 2024, of which about 12,492 operated in the 2023/24 winter season. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Feb 2024)
  • There were 21,398 licensed tourist buses in service at the end of 2025, up from 19,927 a year earlier and 19,545 at the end of 2023. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Egyptian sea ports handled 519,107 passengers in 2024. Nuweiba took 248,465 and Safaga 197,986, mostly on ferries. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Hurghada port handled 9,439 sea passengers in 2024 and Sharm el-Sheikh port 8,954. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)
  • Road accidents killed 5,260 people in Egypt in 2024, down from 5,861 in 2023 and 7,762 in 2022. (CAPMAS (Egypt in Figures 2026), Jun 2026)

Cruise-ship figures are ministry statements; dahabiyas, the smaller sailing boats, are not included. Sea port figures are mostly ferry passengers, not cruise tourists. Road deaths cover all road users, including residents, and come from the national statistics agency.

How many hotel rooms does Egypt have?

Egypt's hotel stock grew after 2022 as closed hotels reopened and new ones were built, and the ministry says tens of thousands more rooms are under way. The latest exact national count dates from March 2024.

  1. 1 Antique and souvenir shops 3,680
  2. 2 Tourism companies 2,240
  3. 3 Tourist restaurants and cafeterias 1,620
  4. 4 Hotel establishments 1,300
  5. 5 Diving and marine centres 630
Licensed tourism businesses in Egypt at the end of 2025, by type. (Cabinet IDSC, May 2026)
  • Egypt had 220,044 hotel rooms in December 2023, after 14,209 rooms opened or reopened during the year, growth of 7%. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jan 2024)
  • Closed rooms fell from 23,099 in December 2022 to 16,215 in December 2023. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jan 2024)
  • In the first quarter of 2024, 4,012 rooms opened or reopened: 2,767 new rooms, including 11 new hotels with 1,503 rooms, and 1,245 reopened. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Apr 2024)
  • Cairo has only about 30,000 hotel rooms, the then tourism minister said in February 2024. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Feb 2024)
  • Hotel projects with about 35,000 rooms are under construction or development, the minister said in October 2026. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Oct 2026)
  • At the end of 2025 Egypt had about 1,300 licensed hotel establishments, fixed and floating, and 2,240 tourism companies. (Cabinet IDSC, May 2026)
  • It also had about 1,620 tourist restaurants and cafeterias, 3,680 antique and souvenir shops and 630 diving and marine-activity centres. (Cabinet IDSC, May 2026)
  • A single room for one weekend night in a three-star hotel in urban Egypt cost an average EGP 549.91 in 2022, against EGP 428.42 in 2019 and EGP 234.68 in 2015. (CAPMAS (price bulletin), 2022)

Room counts are licensed rooms, including Nile cruise ships, and include rooms in closed hotels. The ministry has not published a later exact national total. Establishment counts are from ministry registers as reported by the Cabinet's IDSC. The hotel price is a CAPMAS survey in Egyptian pounds from before the 2023-24 devaluations, not an average tourist rate.

When is the best time to visit Egypt?

October to April is the most comfortable time for the Nile Valley, where summer highs pass 40°C in Luxor and Aswan. The Red Sea coast is warmer in winter, and almost nowhere in Egypt gets much rain except Alexandria.

Climate figures are 1981-2010 averages from the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, published by the WMO and measured at airport stations; they are not the newer 1991-2020 averages. Annual rainfall totals and rain days are our sums of the monthly averages.

When are Egypt's busiest months?

Egypt publishes no monthly arrivals series, so airport traffic is the best guide to the seasons. Summer is busy at Cairo and the Red Sea airports, and growth slowed in summer 2026.

  1. 1 Cairo 7.94m
  2. 2 Hurghada 2.71m
  3. 3 Sharm el-Sheikh 2.00m
  4. 4 Sohag 0.26m
  5. 5 El Alamein 0.12m
Passengers at selected airports from June to August 2026, in millions. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aug 2026)
  • From June to August 2026 Cairo airport handled 7,942,903 passengers, against 7,830,717 a year earlier. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aug 2026)
  • Over the same summer months Hurghada handled 2,711,731 passengers and Sharm el-Sheikh 2,001,905, both only slightly up on 2025. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aug 2026)
  • Sohag airport, reopened on 1 March 2026, handled 263,472 passengers that summer, against 77,021 a year earlier, and El Alamein 120,345. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Aug 2026)
  • Cairo handled 3,133,767 passengers in August 2026, up from 2,869,522 a year earlier, and 2,875,589 in September. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Oct 2026)
  • Airports outside Cairo handled 5,110,629 passengers in August and September 2026, against 4,875,411 a year earlier; Hurghada grew 6.1% and Sharm el-Sheikh 6.2%. (Ministry of Civil Aviation, Oct 2026)
  • In the first half of 2024 Egypt received 7.069 million tourists, almost the same as the 7.062 million of the first half of 2023, and tourist nights rose to 70.2 million from 67.6 million. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jul 2024)
  • Stays are longest in summer: the average stay was 13.5 nights in August 2018, the latest year with monthly figures. (CAPMAS and Ministry of Tourism (CBE monthly bulletin), Jul 2026)

Seasonality here is read from airport passenger months published by the aviation ministry, which count all passengers, including residents. The summer 2026 release came out before the end of August, so its figures are provisional. Quarterly travel receipts, in the spending section, show the same pattern, with July to September the strongest quarter. The first-half 2024 figures are ministry statements.

How is 2026 going, and what are Egypt's tourism targets?

Growth has slowed in 2026 after the record of 2025, and the government has lowered its expectations for the year. Its long-term goal is 30 million tourists a year, though official statements have given different target years.

about 19m 2025 20.19m 2026 forecast 23.78m 2030 forecast
View data table
Tourist arrivals in 2025 and the BMI forecast for 2026 and 2030, in millions, as reviewed by the Cabinet's IDSC.
PeriodValue
2025about 19m
2026 forecast20.19m
2030 forecast23.78m
Tourist arrivals in 2025 and the BMI forecast for 2026 and 2030, in millions, as reviewed by the Cabinet's IDSC. (Cabinet IDSC, Sep 2026)
  • Arrivals rose 4% in the first half of 2026. (State Information Service, Jul 2026)
  • In February 2026 the government aimed for 10% more tourists in 2026. (State Information Service, Feb 2026)
  • By July the minister expected growth of 5% to 7% for the year. (State Information Service, Jul 2026)
  • In September the minister said Egypt expects 20 million tourists in 2026. (State Information Service, Sep 2026)
  • A BMI forecast reviewed by the Cabinet's IDSC projects 20.19 million arrivals in 2026 and 23.78 million by 2030, average growth of 4.6% a year. (Cabinet IDSC, Sep 2026)
  • The same forecast has tourism revenue rising from US$18.58 billion in 2026 to US$21.15 billion by 2030. (Cabinet IDSC, Sep 2026)
  • The FY2025/26 plan targeted about 193 million tourist nights by the end of June 2026. (Ministry of Planning, Oct 2025)
  • The government's 2025 yearender set the goal at 30 million visitors a year by 2031, with more hotel capacity as one of its two pillars. (State Information Service, Dec 2025)
  • A government statement in May 2026 gave 2030 as the year for the same goal. (State Information Service, May 2026)

The 2026 and 2030 arrival and revenue figures are a private-sector (BMI) forecast relayed by the Cabinet's IDSC, not government targets, and the revenue forecast is not on the same basis as the central bank's fiscal-year receipts. Ministry growth figures for 2026 are rounded statements. Official statements have dated the 30 million goal to different years, so we give each with its source.

Glossary

FY
Egypt's fiscal year, from July to June. FY2025/26 runs from July 2025 to June 2026.
CBE
Central Bank of Egypt, which compiles the balance of payments.
CAPMAS
Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Egypt's national statistics agency.
MoTA
Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
IDSC
Information and Decision Support Center, the Egyptian Cabinet's research body.
Travel receipts
Money spent in Egypt by non-residents, measured in the balance of payments.
Tourist nights
Nights spent in Egypt by international tourists, as counted by the government.
GEM
The Grand Egyptian Museum, near the Giza pyramids.
Floating hotel
A licensed Nile cruise ship, counted in Egypt's hotel capacity.
LE / EGP
The Egyptian pound.
BMI
A research firm owned by Fitch, whose forecast the IDSC reviewed.
WMO
World Meteorological Organization, which publishes national climate averages.

Methodology and sources

Figures come from Egypt's official producers: the Central Bank of Egypt for travel receipts and the older arrivals and nights series; the Ministry of Planning for tourism GDP, investment and fiscal-year arrivals and nights; CAPMAS, the national statistics agency, for site and museum visits, airports, ports and roads; the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for arrivals, hotels, Nile cruises and the Grand Egyptian Museum; the Ministry of Civil Aviation for recent airport traffic; the Cabinet's IDSC and the State Information Service for official statements and reports; and the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, through the WMO, for climate. Each figure links to the document that carries it, with the date. Fiscal-year figures (July to June) are labelled FY and never charted with calendar years. Recent arrivals are rounded ministry statements and are marked as such. Where two official counts use different bases, as for site visits, we give each with its source and do not compare them. Where we calculated a figure, such as a share or an average, the note says so. Provisional figures are labelled. The page is reviewed monthly and the date is shown at the top.